


Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Chapter Notes

by karoffelbrei89



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Harry Potter meta, Meta, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, chapter notes, cross-posted from tumblr, hp meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 11:13:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 8,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17042666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karoffelbrei89/pseuds/karoffelbrei89
Summary: Part of my great Potter re-read, chapter notes to every book. Crossposting from tumblr (https://hufflly-puffs.tumblr.com).





	1. Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived**

  * I absolutely love the title of the first chapter, because it is so telling. Harry Potter has always been a story about life & death, about loss & grief, light& darkness. Harry, as a character, has always been a symbol for life, light & hope, for new beginnings and the world of the living. And in a weird meta foretelling it does right here already answers the question if Harry is going to survive or not. Of course he will live, because that has been who he always was.


  * And of course we start this story about magic in the most unmagical place of all – at the home of the Dursleys. Of course from a narrative point it makes sense that Harry will stumble into the world of magic as unknowingly as the reader themselves, asking all the questions we might ask. But the Dursleys themselves are here because they present something familiar – everyone knows people like them, people who fear they could be anything other ordinary.


  * “ _They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense_.” - Even before we learn how they treated Harry I remember disliking them, because why wouldn’t you want to be involved in strange mysteries?


  * _“Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me.”_ – Of course the most famous wizard of all time would be given the most common name. I bet there are a dozen of real Harry Potters out there, and they are all getting tired of your jokes.


  * Dumbledore says that they hadn’t much to celebrate for the past eleven years – given that both Lily & James were 21 when they died they both spent their entire time in Hogwarts and as young adults living in fear. Especially Lily who would have never experienced a magical world without Voldemort and Death Eaters. This might also explain why they married so young & started a family right away.


  * _“… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?’ ‘We can only guess,’ said Dumbledore. ‘We may never know.’”_ – SPOILER: He did, in fact, know.


  * I always found it weird that Harry really only had his aunt & uncle as relatives left. I think the real reason might have been indeed that it was safer for Harry to grow up far away from the magical world, away from the fame he couldn’t understand, and some complicated magic that I don’t think will be explained until book 5.


  * The other chosen one, as we later learn, was of course Neville. I think the biggest difference however would have been their upbringing. Neville would have still grown up with his grandmother, but with all the attention Dumbledore tried to avoid to bring to Harry.


  * I wonder if McGonagall feared Harry would end up as a spoiled brat just like Dudley, when she voiced her concerns.


  * _“[…]there will be books written about Harry – every child in our world will know his name!”_ – The most meta commentary ever.


  * Oh yes, scars can be very useful. Like this one, who will always tell Harry when Voldemort is near or angry. Of course he has to keep it.


  * I still can’t believe they left a one year old alone in the middle of the night in November. Three grown-ups decided this was the best they could do. Luckily none of them works with children – Oh, wait.


  * Also a freaking letter? Clearly Dumbledore couldn’t be arsed to find some time to actually explain to the Dursleys what happened, or to tell Petunia her sister died in person.




	2. Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass**

  * In this chapter we learn what horrible relatives the Dursleys really are. A lot has already been written about it, about the abuse Harry had to endure and that he is seemingly okay for a boy who had to live under such circumstances. The first time I read this book, as a child, this wasn’t an issue for me. Yes, the Dursleys were terrible, but Harry reacted in a way I imagined I would have – with a lot of sass. It didn’t occur to me that what the Dursleys did was in fact abuse and that in reality a boy like Harry would have reacted quite different. And I think that is the point – the story is written from a children’s POV and it is written for children. Child abuse is a very dark, complicated topic, which is why it has no real place in this story – yet. Later on – I think in book 6 – the word “abuse” is actually used, and interestingly not only to describe what happened to Harry but to Dudley as well. Because as much as Petunia and Vernon neglected Harry what they did to Dudley was cruel in its own way.


  * Also, I think the Dursleys were a different version of the horrible orphanage where characters like Harry typically end up. We later get there when we learn that Tom Riddle grew up in one. In the end we have three characters – Voldemort, Snape & Harry – who grew up under terrible circumstances, yet they became three very different men, showing that it is not what happened to us what defines us but rather our choices and how we decide to deal with it.


  * The cupboard under the stairs – I imagined it a lot smaller than what we later saw in the movies and I even tried to sleep in my own cupboard at the time, to get the real authentic Harry Potter experience.


  * I always wonder about the relationship between Petunia and Harry. We get brief glimpses about her relationship to her sister in book 5 and 7, and I wonder if only for a brief time she tried to take care of Harry, but then he showed his first signs of magic, and all her hatred and loathing for her sisters was turned on Harry. It’s been later noted that she is usually the only one knocking at his cupboard door, and it seems like she is the one mostly responsible for him.


  * And then there is the complete absence of Harry’s parents in the Dursley home. No photos, no mentions, and Harry isn’t allowed to ask questions. The official reason might have been to shield Harry away from everything remotely magical, but perhaps it was the only way Petunia could have dealt with her grief, by erasing her sister’s existence (but then again Harry reminded her of Lily every day… oddly enough I think she has something in common with Snape).


  * _“Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him.”_ – Fun fact: as a child, whenever someone looked weird at me, I imagined I was a princess from a far off magical kingdom, that was at war with some other kingdom, and it wasn’t until I was officially off age that I would learn about my true identity.




	3. Chapter 3: Letters from No One & Chapter 4: The Keeper of the Keys

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 3: Letters from No One**

  * Which is technically not true, they are from someone.
  * I still wonder how Harry would have done at Stonewall High.
  * So Hogwarts or rather the people at Hogwarts knew that Harry lived in a freaking cupboard and yet they did nothing to stop it? I’m glad nobody there has anything to do with child-care – Oh, wait.
  * Also, while uncle Vernon never gets physical abusive (which I think is a line they never dared to cross), Dudley is. He hits Harry, he hits his father, he kicks his mother. I hope he never had children of his own.



**Chapter 4: The Keeper of the Keys**

  * HAGRID! He is probably the character with the biggest heart, and there is no one else who would have been better to introduce Harry into the magical world.
  * And this is the first of what must be a million times we hear someone say Harry looks like his dad, but got his mother’s eyes.
  * This is the first time we get a glimpse in the complicated Petunia-Lily-relationship. Harry perhaps might had his own theories what exactly happened between them that his aunt never even mentioned her sister, and why his aunt seem to dislike him on principle. Of course later we learn that there was more to it, that Petunia didn’t hated her sister simply for who she was, but was rather jealous, and that part of her did in fact cared. And all that anger we see might be nothing more than disguised fear. Fear of the unknown, and fear of a world that took away her sister.
  * There is an interesting thing uncle Vernon says here – that they have sworn to put a stop to it (Harry’s magical heritage), something they had already said when the first letter arrived. Which does sound like a very messed up way of love. That the abusive treatment Harry got was for his best, to protect him from that other world. It is a strange logic that argues that an utterly miserable Harry somehow wouldn’t become a wizard – especially as it is shown that Harry’s magic only came to action whenever he was angry or sad.
  * “ _I accept there’s something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn’t have cured_ ” – I wrote that uncle Vernon never got physical abusive and the books never gave us any evidence that he was. However that doesn’t mean he doesn’t approve some sort of violence. I think it is fair to say he grew up in an environment where beatings weren’t that unusual, and with the belief you can beat something out of someone – cure them if you will (and now magic has become a metaphor for homosexuality). Still, by the time the novels take place domestic violence is already a taboo, and the Dursley would hate to be anything other than normal. However Dudley is violent – towards other children, towards his parents – and they do nothing about it.
  * _“If he’d once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?”_ – One of the reasons why I so easily identified with Harry were his insecurities, and the fact that he was always an outsider. At the Muggle world Dudley made sure of it, and in the wizarding world his fame singled him out. His worries and fears, whenever he felt powerless made him so incredible human – he is just a kid after all. Not winning any popularity contests at school myself I could always relate.
  * If Hagrid was expelled in his third year, does he only know magic up to that level? Did Dumbledore secretly taught him some more? And shouldn’t the ministry know whenever Hagrid misused magic, as in say getting someone’s a pig’s tail?




	4. Chapter 5: Diagon Ally

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 5: Diagon Ally**

  * This is probably the chapter where I truly fell in love with the book, because here we enter for the first time the magical world. Looking back I expected the magic in Harry Potter to be more modern, whatever that means, so I was a bit surprised how traditional the witches & wizards were portrayed here, wearing robes & pointed hats, flying on brooms with their cats and toads, brewing potions and of course, having a wand. I love how a lot of those stereotypical things about witches & wizards found their way into the story, and yet there is always a twist to it. However the wizarding world is anachronistic and strangely out of time. We know electricity doesn’t work at Hogwarts or any other place full of magic and there are probably a lot of useful spells that make electricity redundant. And yet, there are things like writing on parchment with a quill, and anyone who has ever done it knows how hard it is, and there are easier ways to write. They only get the news through papers, a day later (though I think there is wizarding radio as well). No television, NO INTERNET. Imagine the look on every muggleborn first year when they realize Hogwarts has no wi-fi (and yes, I know this particular story takes place 1991, before everyone was online all the time, and yet Harry was used to a higher technical standard than he would find at Hogwarts).
  * Is there really only one wizarding bank? Like in the entire world? Does everyone has to travel to London just to get their money? And if so the magical population can’t be that much, if all their fortune fits into one bank.
  * Hagrid tells Harry that the reason wizards live in secrecy is because otherwise Muggles would ask them for their help all the time. Which first off, is a bit selfish (imagine all the good healers could do in the Muggle world), and second probably not the real reason. Muggles were aware of wizards at some point, there is enough evidence of that (like the fact that  traditional wizard robes looks a lot like a typical Halloween costume), so why (and when) did wizards decide to live in secret? They are certainly more powerful than Muggles, though they do outnumber them, which is their only advantage. And this of course is where pureblood fanatics are coming from, in believing they are superior and it shouldn’t be them hiding.
  * Speaking of, hello Draco. Fair warning I do have a soft spot for him, though I don’t think he becomes an interesting character until book 6. What I found interesting in hindsight is that the first fellow student Harry ever met wasn’t Ron or Hermione, but Malfoy. And there is a certain irony to it, how random their meeting at Madame Malkin is, and how much their fates would be later intertwined, especially in book 7. Malfoy of course is here to teach us a lesson even before we enter Hogwarts: that not all wizards are the same, that there are different belief systems, that will cause great conflict in the wizarding community. And Malfoy of course is a different kind of bully than Dudley is; where Dudley is brute, Malfoy is cruel.
  * There is of course a great irony about Harry, who grew up poor (even though the Dursley were not), only to be given a small fortune, but never forgetting how it feels like to have nothing. And then later the same happens to J.K. Rowling, who at some points was dependent on welfare, and later became one of the richest women in the world. Social classes do play an important role throughout the novels, though we talk more about that once we meet the Weasleys.




	5. Chapter 6: The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 6: The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters**

  * Did the Dursleys ever came back after they left Harry at King’s Cross, to get rid of Dudley’s tail? (And what exactly did they tell the doctors has happened?) And if so, and Harry was nowhere to be found, did they just assume Harry made it to Hogwarts? Did they ever worry for a single moment something might have happened to him, an eleven year old who was left completely alone in a big strange city? And later of course it is the first thing Molly notices about him, that he is all alone at the platform.
  * Harry secretly listening to the Weasleys, and there is something about them that makes it impossible not to like them. I mean I was pretty much sold the moment it was written they were all ginger and freckled, because I grew up on Pippi Longstocking and desperately wanted to have ginger hair & freckles as a child. They obviously present a very idealistic image of a family, full of warmth and love and support for each other, and just as Harry I wanted to be desperately a part of this family.
  * And thus starts the Harry & Ron friendship. Ron of course is the kind of character that is very easy to like and was probably friends with everyone. Harry of course never had any friends before, so obviously the first decent guy he met (sorry Draco) becomes his best friend for life. But there is of course the fact that Harry thinks Ron is as fascinating as Ron thinks Harry is. And Ron has never been someone special, he is the sixth one of his family to attend Hogwarts, but for Harry he is.
  * The Weasleys of course bring in another topic: social class & poverty. Now, you probably all know the story of J.K. Rowling’s own financial struggles while she was writing the first book, and that she was dependent on welfare and knows first hand how immensely poverty affects every part of your life.  This will be an ongoing theme with the Weasleys and especially Ron, who will always feel ashamed of his family poverty (and the wizarding world as it seems doesn’t have a welfare system). Children shouldn’t have to worry about money and if their parents can afford new school robes or whatever, and yet Ron does, showing the readers how much impact poverty has on children’s life. Ron even apologies for his mum’s sandwiches, saying they are a bit dry because she doesn’t have a lot of time with five children in the house, showing that Ron is aware of the pressure his parents are under.
  * I never noticed this before because we don’t get fully into wandlore until book 7, but Ron says he uses Charlie’s old wand, and we know he doesn’t get a new one until book 3, and while the wand works for him, it is fair to assume he would have had better results with his own wand from the beginning. (I was also under the impression that every wand is unique, and that every wizard has one perfect match, so while wands obviously can get broken, it would make more sense to repair them then to buy a new one? So why would Charlie have a new wand? Or was that wand used already, and he bought his own once he earned his own money?)
  * Well hello Hermione. I think my first impression of her, first time I read Harry Potter, was the same as the boys: she seemed a bit annoying and bossy. Now though I think it is clear how insecure she was, and that by learning everything there was to learn about this new foreign world she tried to take some control over the situation. And this is of course speculative, but we later learn that both her parents are dentist and I think she probably did spent a lot of her time alone, with her parents still working, forcing her to grow up a bit faster and to be a bit more mature than others her age (see her comment on the other children on the train acting childish). Opposite to Ron, who is the second youngest and always had a bunch of people taking care of him.
  * Harry is somewhere in the middle, who as he was with the Dursleys probably were never really allowed to be a child, so now he tries to have all the fun he can have (like eating all the sweats), and what better friend than Ron to do so.
  * I’m also pretty sure Hermione never had many friends in her life up til Hogwarts, her being a bit social awkward, again opposed to Ron, who so easily and uncomplicated makes new friends. And all their early bickering and acting like an old married couple is so much more fun to read knowing that they will end up as an old married couple indeed.
  * Hermione says she heard that Gryffindor is the best house, and while she seems like a typical Ravenclaw at first, the hat might had considered her own wishes as well.




	6. Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat**

  * The house system. Which is something you probably are familiar with if you are British, but was an entire new thing for the rest of the world, and these days the four houses have such a great popcultural impact, even outside the Harry Potter fandom. Asking someone which Hogwarts house they are in has become a thing, and frankly I think it tells you more about a person than say their zodiac sign. I even use the Hogwarts houses as character traits, sometimes thinking of certain actions to be very Slytherin for example. And everyone has a story to tell about their Pottermore tests and whether they thought their result was fitting or not (the old Pottermore put me in Gryffindor, which never felt quite right, but the new one put me in Hufflepuff, where I truly belong).


  * The thing however about the houses is that they divide the students. Even before Harry arrives at Hogwarts he has heard all kind of stereotypes about the houses, like that Hufflepuffs are all losers (not true!) and that every Slytherin is evil (also not true). Harry’s resistance to be sorted into Slytherin is based on some rumours. And then the houses pretty much stay on their own; they have classes together, but there is no common room or place in the castle where they all can meet (and no the library doesn’t count), so we rarely see interhouse friendships (and this only changes once Dumbledore’s Army is founded).


  * I also wonder about the magic of the Sorting Hat, and how much he really knows. One might argue that eleven year olds don’t have a fully formed personality yet (and there are fanfics who therefore have the students sorted every year, not just the first). I bet a lot of people wondered why Neville was sorted into Gryffindor. In hindsight it makes sense, because Neville will grow into that person, and the question is if the Sorting hat might knew this all along.


  * Speaking of Neville, I have a lot of protective feelings about him. We speak a lot about the abuse Harry had to suffer through, but never about great-uncle Algie, who nearly drowned Neville and threw him out of a window to… activate his magic I suppose? Is this a common thing in the wizarding world? With the Malfoys, and the Blacks, and the Longbottoms here, the Weasleys seem like the only normal wizarding family.




	7. Chapter 8: The Potions Master

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 8: The Potions Master**

  * So far cats don’t get a good reputation. They were responsible for Mrs. Figg broken leg and of course Mrs. Norris doesn’t help either. Say what you want however about Filch, one has to appreciate his bond with his cat.
  * _“They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight […]”_ – shouldn’t they be… I dunno… at bed at midnight? Just saying.
  * Ok, Snape. First things first, I’m not a big fan of the character, so if you looking for some Snape love this might be the wrong place. I don’t think he is the worst, but I have a lot of issues with him, and even his redemption arc left a bitter taste in my mouth, for reasons we will get into once we reach the end of book 7.
  * “ _It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far_.” – Your parents were killed by a psychopath and you grew up in a cupboard, I’m sure you manage potions class.
  * Just with this chapter there are many things that make it very hard to like Snape: he constantly humiliates his students, not just Harry, but Neville and Hermione as well (he calls Neville an ‘idiot’ and snaps at Hermione, who did nothing else than wanting to answer his questions). He clearly doesn’t have the temper to work with children and worst of all is his treatment of Harry, who he singles out to be especially cruel to him. Fast forward seven books we know the reasons why he felt the way he did about Harry – but that doesn’t justify any of his actions. Harry is in no way responsible for his father’s action or anything else that has happened. Snape is nothing more than a resentful man, who never learn to let go or to forgive.



 


	8. Chapter 9: The Midnight Duel

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 9: The Midnight Duel**

  * The great moral we learn from this chapter is that if you break the rules you might even get a reward for it. Sorry (not sorry) for going full Hermione here but there was absolutely no reason for Harry to go after Draco, except that Draco of course always had the ability to go under Harry’s skin (#Drarry). Madam Hooch could have easily accio’d the Rembrall back. And the only real punishment Harry gets is McGonagall telling him to train real hard. Like he doesn’t even get a single detention?


  * _“The most you and Malfoy’ll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage.”_ – Ron is right about this. Having a wizarding duel, after what, two weeks at Hogwarts, is a bit ridiculous. However he gives great advice. ( _’And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?’ - ‘Throw it away and punch him on the nose,’ Ron suggested.)_


  * And even though Hermione isn’t part of their friends group yet, somehow the plot manages to involve her in all of Harry’s early adventures. The same is true for Neville, and somehow I wish he would have been a closer friend of Harry, the way Ron & Hermione were.


  * I couldn’t help but imagine the entire sequence where the gang runs through the castle in the middle of the night, trying to escape Filch, as one of these sequences from Scooby Doo, where the Scooby gang tries to run away from the monster of the week.


  * And there is the fact that even a first year can open the door to the forbidden corridor. Like seriously? They didn’t even sealed the door magical? (Because if they did “Alohomora” wouldn’t have worked on it). Risking that every curious student would have potentially met Fluffy. Then again the entire thing was build in a way that three first years could have conquered it, so whatever.




	9. Chapter 10: Hallowe’en

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 10: Hallowe’en**

  * Quidditch. One of the few things that work better in the movies than in the novels, simply because dynamic things like flying always look better on film than simply describing them. I must admit I am always a bit bored when it comes to Quidditch though, and luckily the movies didn’t show us every single match Harry ever had. There is a certain appeal however in how the team works together and the rush and excitement when they win, I give you that.


  * Ahhh Ron, I love you, but please don’t be mean to Hermione. I wrote about this earlier, that is very likely Hermione never had much friends, and two months at Hogwarts she hasn’t made anyone here either. And that is what makes her such a well rounded character, that for all her intelligence, she always struggles when it comes to connecting with other people, perhaps overanalysing things the way she always does.


  * I still wonder why Quirell thought it was necessary to create a distraction in order to get to the forbidden corridor. Everyone was busy at the Halloween feast, and clearly as a teacher nobody would have thought it was suspicious when he was seen there. The troll however gives it away, something even Harry figures out (though he suspects Snape behind it).


  * “ _There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them_.” – This will always be one of my favourite quotes in the book. For one thing because it marks the beginning of the trio as we know it, but also because I always dreamed up adventures as a child, and by surviving them I would have created an unbreakable bond between me and my comrades. The trope of course isn’t entirely new, and it is the easiest way to establish a friendship.




	10. Chapter 11: Quidditch

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 11: Quidditch**

  * Once Hermione joins their little group she fulfils the role of the nurturer, making sure the boys do their homework right and basically taking care of them. As I wrote before she is the most mature one, probably used to take care of her own and now her friends. It is obviously an old cliché that the main female character of the series (that for once isn’t the love interest of our hero) somehow takes over the role of a mother in some ways. Ron is the fun friend, whereas Hermione is nagging and always the responsible one. She is usually the one in charge, and once she becomes Harry’s friend our perspective of her changes from annoying to confident.


  * Does anyone else think it was weird that Snape asked Filch of all people to help him change his bandages? Perhaps he didn’t want the other teachers to know of his injury, though they must have noticed his limping as well. Were Snape and Filch friends? At least they had their hate for children in common (so obviously they both choose a profession where they are surrounded by children every day).


  * This happens twice in the books, and only during Quidditch matches, the POV changes, from Harry to Hermione to Hagrid to Harry again, which is… odd. Clearly it is important that the reader knows that Hermione is responsible for saving Harry, but the weird mix of perspectives is well… weird.


  * And always rely on Hagrid to reveal accidently important information to move the plot forwards.



 


	11. Chapter 12: The Mirror of Erised

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 12: The Mirror of Erised**

  * This is, without a doubt, my favourite chapter in the book, because a) it takes place at Christmas and b) the whole story-arc around the mirror and Harry seeing his parents for the first time always breaks my heart.


  * _“While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the draughty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape’s classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.”_ – This is a school for magic, why aren’t there any heating spells or magical objects to keep the students warm? WHY?


  * Ron and his brothers, along with Harry, stay over Christmas (because mama & papa Weasley visit Charlie), and stay over the Easter holidays as well (to learn for their exams), which means they only going to see their parents again once the school year is over, which my research says is by the end of June. Summer holidays start on the 1st of July and end on the 31st of August, so two months, which means the school year lasts 10 months. Which is a very long time, and even if you see your parents at the holidays, you spent the majority of the year at school. And because wizards and witches are so low in numbers, I think it is common that all wizarding schools are boarding schools, so in the magic society it is normal that once you turn 11 you spent most of your time away from home and away from your parents. So wizards in general are probably more mature once they leave school (and we don’t know if wizarding universities exist), because they are forced to take care of themselves from a pretty early age on. Sure there are still teachers, but they can’t and shouldn’t replace parents (and really can you imagine talking with a teacher about something you usually talk about with your parents?). And storywise this makes Hogwarts a parent-free place. Making Harry an orphan isn’t exactly a new trope, and it always forces these characters to grow up faster and take over more responsibilities than they would have with their parents still there. But Hogwarts in a way has this effect on every kid, where the characters constantly make decisions they are too young for.


  * Also Christmas (and Easter) are Christian holidays, and yet they are the only remotely reference to religion in the wizarding world. It is fair to assume that every muggleborn and half-blood wizard/witch still celebrate their religion, but what about the old (pureblood) wizarding families? Do they have a religion of their own? Why celebrate a Christian holiday of all things when Christianity hasn’t exactly been fond of witchcraft? Are the Deatheaters/the cult around Voldemort some sort of religion?


  * _“We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.”_ – What message? Did Harry wrote to them once he arrived at Hogwarts to let them know he made it there? Or did he simply wrote them he wouldn’t be home for Christmas? Did really 4 months passed until they heard from him?


  * THE WEASLEY SWEATERS! I can’t knit but if I ever learn it I’m gonna make myself my very own Weasley sweater. I also like to think this is some sort of Weasley adoption ritual; Harry is officially a Weasley now.


  * This is the chapter where we for the first time truly focus on Harry’s loss. This starts with the invisibility cloak that has been given to him, because what makes it so special, at least for Harry, is not what it can do, but that it once belonged to his father. This is the first time he holds something in his hands that had been his parent’s, which is also the reason why Harry is so unwilling to share it with anyone else, except Ron & Hermione.


  * And then of course there is the mirror of erised (which just happened to be in an unlocked old classroom, and at this point I’m not even bothered anymore with Hogwarts non existing security system). Anyone reading about what it shows probably wondered what they would see themselves. I’m not sure what eleven year old me would have seen, but I do know what I would see now, which is quite close to what Harry sees, and the reason why this chapter means so much to me.


  * _“Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life. The Potters smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through it and reach them. He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness.”_ – This might be the first time Harry felt grief, felt the entirety of the loss, that his parent’s death left behind. Because until the moment he enters the wizarding world there was nothing but a void where his parents were supposed to be. He had never seen even a single photo of them and he wasn’t allowed to ask any questions, and of course he was too young when they died to remember them. You can’t miss something that that you have never known. But here they are and suddenly Harry has something to hold on to, the image of his family, and with it the weight of what has been taken from him, what could have been his life. All of sudden their death is no longer abstract but becomes very real.


  * _“‘And I want to see all your family, all the Weasleys, you’ll be able to show me your other brothers and everyone.’ - ‘You can see them any old time,’ said Ron. ‘Just come round my house this summer. Anyway, maybe it only shows dead people. Shame about not finding Flamel, though. Have some bacon or something, why aren’t you eating anything?’”_ – Ron, at times, is an insensitive prick. Of course to Ron it wouldn’t be a big deal to see his family, he is surrounded by them all the time, but it illustrates the difference in these two children, one with a huge loss in his life, and the other who is more carefree and innocent in that way.




	12. Chapter 13: Nicolas Flamel & Chapter 14: Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 13: Nicolas Flamel**

  * _“Could Snape possibly know they’d found out about the Philosopher’s Stone? Harry didn’t see how he could – yet he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.”_ – It is called Legilimency. You get there, Harry. Seriously though we know that Snape had become Quidditch referee to make sure Harry wouldn’t die a gruesome death this time around, and Harry might be even on to something in thinking Snape follows him around. Snape cares enough about Harry that he doesn’t want him to die or terribly hurt, yet he humiliates him at any given chance. And look I already talked about how this grown up man can’t get over something that happened to him as a teenager, but his behaviour doesn’t add up. If he is doing his best to try stop Quirell from hurting Harry, why can’t he get his act together in class and treat Harry like a normal student?


  * Again there is a weird mix of perspectives once we get to the Quidditch match, from Harry, to Ron & Hermione, to Harry again, as if Mrs. Rowling couldn’t decide what was more important, Harry’s feelings regarding the match or what happened on the stands.


  * The scene where Harry follows Snape & Quirell into the Forbidden Forest is of course a perfect example of how limited Harry’s perspective is, and that we should always doubt him to a certain degree as a narrator. He only hears snippets of their conversations and comes to his own conclusion, based on the impressions he already has of his two teachers: the scared victim and the terrifying oppressor.



**Chapter 14: Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback**

  * Spoiler: it is actually Norberta.


  * This chapter shows us how utterly misjudging Hagrid is when it comes to magical creatures. We see it here with Norbert(a), and this theme will continue in the next books with Aragog and basically everything he did as teacher for Care of Magical Creatures. He sees the good in them but forgets how dangerous they are, treating them almost like humans, when they are still animals.


  * Even more so we have here an entire role-reversal. The children act responsible, whereas Hagrid as the adult acts reckless. He completely acts like a child the moment he gets a dragon because he has always wanted one but doesn’t for a moment think about the consequences. What exactly was his plan with Norbert(a)? Did he wanted to keep it forever as a pet, a fully grown dragon? And also, as Hermione said, “ _Hagrid, you live in a wooden house_ ”.




	13. Chapter 15: The Forbidden Forest

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 15: The Forbidden Forest**

  * “‘ _You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I’ve already caught him. I suppose you think it’s funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?’ Harry caught Neville’s eye and tried to tell him without words that this wasn’t true, because Neville was looking stunned and hurt. Poor, blundering Neville – Harry knew what it must have cost him to try and find them in the dark, to warn them_.” – Oh Neville. Of course Harry never actually tells him the truth, and I wish he would have. Instead he belittles Neville and this will continue even more in the next chapter, where I will talk about this a bit more.


  * And then McGonagall proves why she is the best teacher, because even though she hurts her own house and takes away every possibility they had to win the House Cup, she punishes her students in a way that will make them think twice before breaking the rules again. It is hard to believe that Snape ever took that many points from his own house (which is likely the reason why Slytherin won the House cup seven times in a row), but McGonagall is always fair, in both her praise and her punishment.


  * Also, it is so cute to think back at a time where the House Cup was Harry’s biggest worry.


  * So Harry and his friends are responsible for losing Gryffindor 150 points and everyone starts to hate Harry. And this of course won’t be the last time, because with Harry it is always one extreme or the other, love or hate, with nothing in between, because Harry is never allowed to be just one student of many. His fame lets people forget that there is an actually person behind the big name, and strangely enough it reminds me of the call-out-culture that has developed in recent years in which celebrities are no longer allowed to make mistakes.


  * No matter how you look at it but it is in no way appropriate to take a bunch of eleven year olds in the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night. So my headcanon is that Hagrid offered himself for their detention, as he felt responsible for them to be in that situation in the first place (and well, he is). And Hagrid being Hagrid wouldn’t think it is too dangerous for them entering the Forest at night, looking for something that kills unicorns.


  * With the centaurs we have the first piece of divination in the Potter books. Future-telling is within the series always a bit vague and ambivalent and open for interpretation, but a lot of the predictions that have been made, whether by centaurs or later Trelawney, come true in one way or another. The centaurs foretell that Voldemort will return and kill Harry. Both things do eventually come true, though years later. We simply assume that their prophecy will concern recent events, but that has never been said. And with that we can wonder if free will and choice exist within the Harry Potter books, or only within the rules of predetermination. That while Harry is able to make certain choices, the end result will always be the same.




	14. Chapter 16: Through the Trapdoor

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 16: Through the Trapdoor**

  * Imagine you are eleven years old and constantly afraid that the psychopath who killed your parents could walk into your school to kill you as well? Imagine the anxiety level Harry went through in the final weeks of his first school year at Hogwarts. And on top of that he had to write exams.


  * And then we have two teachers (McGonagall & Snape) who think it is suspicious that Harry, Ron & Hermione are inside the school, doing absolutely nothing, just because the weather is great and everyone else is outside? What kind of logic is that?


  * I think this is perhaps the chapter that I read entirely different as a child than I do now as an adult. Because back then I obviously identified myself with Harry and never question his decision to go after the Stone himself. Now though I see things different, and even though I can accept this is what the plot demands, it is still weird to see an eleven year old child and his two best friends deciding it is up to them to get the Philosopher’s Stone to prevent Voldemort from getting it and therefore saving the Wizarding World. It is a bit much.


  * Then again at this point all authority figures fail these children. They are either to be suspected to be evil themselves (Snape), don’t believe them (McGonagall) or absent (Dumbledore). And this theme of course will continue over the series, where these children are forced into the roles of adults, where they have to take responsibility, because nobody else can or want to, or because they are the only ones who know the truth. And this comes along with the deconstruction of authority figures (parents, teachers, etc) and institutions of authority (Ministry of Magic, Hogwarts, etc).


  * “ _Don’t you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort’s coming back! Haven’t you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won’t be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He’ll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn’t matter any more, can’t you see? D’you think he’ll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor win the House Cup_?” – Harry here paints an image of what an actual return of Voldemort would look like, seeing the wider picture in a way that again I don’t think a child would, but that ultimately works as a great mirror to book 7, where we do see Hogwarts turn into school for Dark Arts.


  * But before our trio makes their journey through the trap door they of course have to face Neville again. And they completely belittle him and talk him down, in a way that breaks my heart (and possibly Neville’s nose, because he falls on his face). They talk to him like they are adults, who know better, and Neville is just a stupid child. They never even try to explain the situation, assuming he wouldn’t understand or might even help them (or at least let them go). And up to this point Neville has been suspected by his family to be not magical enough to go to Hogwarts, has been publicly humiliated by one of his teachers (Snape) and thinks Harry has lied to him. He is constantly treated in a way that he is not good enough, not worthy anyone’s attention or even friendship. To the point of course where Neville himself believes all this about himself.


  * It is also interesting that besides Harry, Ron & Hermione, Neville is the classmate that is mentioned the most, next to Malfoy. And whereas Malfoy takes in the role of a villainous character, Neville in a way takes over the role of Hermione, once she becomes friends with Harry & Ron, in the way that he is always kinda there whenever something happens, but is treated as a bit of annoying.


  * Also obviously the way the Stone is protected isn’t actually very secure, if three first years can get past it. Fluffy might be rare, but he is not the only one of his species, so even without a drunk Hagrid the information how to get past him should be available. Or I’m sure a spell might have worked on him as well. And every competent wizard should have got through the other tasks, as seen with Quirell, so the only real protection is the Mirror of Erised, which I admit is actually quite a good way to protect the stone.


  * So we see how all three use their strengths to get to the Stone. Ron is good at chess, Harry is rather good on a broom, and Hermione is good at logical thinking and the only one who actually listens in Herbology. Though I’m pretty sure Neville could have identified the Devil’s Snare as well, and I’m not saying this task was designed for him, but that is exactly what I am saying. Also Hermione looking for wood and forgetting she is a witch for a moment… like she has only spent 10 months of her life in the wizarding world, and it makes sense that under pressure her attempt to save her friends is the muggle way, because that is what she is used to.


  * And of course Ron has to sacrifice himself in the chess game, because as he explains in order to win you have to make sacrifices. And years later Harry learns that in order to defeat Voldemort he has to sacrifice himself as well, because it is the only way they can win.




	15. Chapter 17: The Man with Two Faces

**_Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_   
**

**Chapter 17: The Man with Two Faces**

  * The first book of course is a great example of how narration and perspective works, because re-reading it, it becomes obvious that Harry and his friends never had real evidence that Snape was the villain, apart from the fact that he openly dislikes Harry, so he has to be evil. And because it is told from Harry’s perspective we are meant to believe him.


  * Quirell also confirms that while Snape does in fact hate Harry he doesn’t want to see him dead, and that he used to loathe Harry’s father when they were both attending Hogwarts together. Later Dumbledore further explains that Harry’s father once saved Snape’s life, creating a life debt, and that protecting Harry from Quirell had to do with it. Which of course is a very simplified version of events, that leaves out James bullying Snape, or that without Sirius playing a cruel joke, Snape’s life didn’t need to get saved in the first place. And of course it also leaves out Snape’s feelings for Lily. Which again is a great example of perspective because the way Harry is told the story here it makes his father look like a hero and Snape like an ungrateful git.


  * _“… to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever_.” – I have nothing to add to this, I just love this quote.


  * “ _He’s a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don’t think it was an accident he let me find out how the Mirror worked. It’s almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could …’_ ” – Here is the implication that Dumbledore knew what would happen and that he knows about pretty much everything that happens in the school, something that the later books will remind us of again and again, and if you think about it that already should us question Dumbledore right here. Because if those assumptions are right, that he wanted Harry to find the mirror and to understand how it works, and gave him back his invisibility cloak, he also wanted him to go after Quirell. And Hermione is rightfully concerned about this, because as she points out, they all could have died. It is one thing if these children decide on their own to do something incredible dangerous but another if an adult, how could have prevented the situation, let this happen. Why? Because he thinks Harry had to face Voldemort? To already shape him in a way he needed him so Harry would become the weapon to destroy Voldemort?


  * At least Hagrid felt bad about it. And gave Harry the best present ever.


  * _“Harry, Ron and Hermione stood up to yell and cheer as Neville, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. He had never won so much as a point for Gryffindor before.” –_ NEVILLE! Though I have some thoughts about Slytherin, and how this book portraits it as the house of evil, and how all the other houses hate Slytherin, and while Snape is clearly biased some of these points were well earned and it just sucks to be in Slytherin for the next years.




End file.
